Sudanese Medics Accuse RSF of Burning and Burying Bodies to Conceal Evidence of Genocide
Refugees fleeing from El-Fasher to Al Dabbah reported that many people died along the way due to injuries or starvation.
A Sudanese medical organization has accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of making a “desperate attempt” to cover up evidence of mass killings in Darfur by burning corpses and burying them in mass graves.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the Sudan Doctors Network reported that RSF fighters have been collecting “hundreds of bodies” from the streets of El-Fasher in Sudan’s western Darfur region following their violent seizure of the city on October 26. The group warned that these atrocities “cannot be erased through concealment or burning.”
“What occurred in El-Fasher is not an isolated event,” the statement added, “but another chapter in a systematic genocide perpetrated by the RSF a blatant violation of international and religious norms that prohibit the mutilation of corpses and guarantee the right to a dignified burial.”
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), around 82,000 of El-Fasher’s 260,000 residents have fled since the RSF captured the last Sudanese army stronghold in Darfur. Reports of mass killings, rape, and torture continue to emerge, while many civilians remain trapped inside the city.
Reporting from Khartoum, media reports indicated that numerous people attempting to flee El-Fasher for Al Dabbah in the north died along the way “due to lack of food and water or injuries sustained from gunfire.” The reports also noted that many escapees learned of the deaths of their relatives through videos shared on social media by RSF fighters, depicting scenes of brutal violence following the group’s takeover
With communications cut off inside the city, many families have lost contact with loved ones. “They believe that if their relatives are still alive in El-Fasher, it may not be for long due to starvation, dehydration, or because the RSF is targeting people based on their ethnicity,” Media reported.
The RSF, which has been at war with the Sudanese army since April 2023, evolved from the predominantly Arab Janjaweed militia a government-backed force accused of committing genocide in Darfur two decades ago. Between 2003 and 2008, an estimated 300,000 people were killed and nearly 2.7 million displaced in campaigns of ethnic violence.
Sylvain Penicaud of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), who spoke with survivors in the town of Tawila, said that many people fleeing El-Fasher reported being “targeted because of the colour of their skin.”
“For me, the most horrifying accounts were of civilians being hunted down as they ran for their lives — attacked simply for being Black,” Penicaud said.
The Zaghawa, the dominant ethnic group in El-Fasher, have been fighting alongside the Sudanese army since late 2023. Initially neutral when the war began, they aligned with the military after the RSF massacred members of the Masalit tribe in West Darfur’s capital, El-Geneina, where up to 15,000 people were killed.
Hassan Osman, a university student from El-Fasher, recounted that civilians with darker skin particularly Zaghawa faced “racial slurs, humiliation, and both physical and psychological abuse” as they fled the city. “If your skin is light, they might let you go,” he said. “It’s purely ethnic.”
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